Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 19

What's your view? We welcome your comments. AH submissions must include your full name, address and daytime telephone number. Limit letters to fewer than 175 words. If you would like to write a longer essay, contact Speaking Out page editor M. Kathleen Wagner, 258-2414.

DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE How to reach us Letters to the Editor. Democrat and Chronicle, 55 Exchange Rochester 14614 Fax: 258-2356 TTY line 258 2510 Opinions by phone: 258-2401 dceditpage a DemocratandChronicle.com WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1999 19A Speaking Out Native Americans sneaking for themselves GUEST ESSAYIST YVONNE BILINSKI Researching Native American topics has given Native American students the opportunity to read and judge primary sources that have dictated common perceptions of their people. a Native Americans aspired only to graduate from high schooL College was not only not in their world view; it was not financially viable. Over the past 40 years, more and more Native American students have gone on to college. Their retention and graduation rates are slowly increasing and at Native Voices on Friday, we will be privileged to meet and hear from some of our success stories.

BilinsJci, is assistant director of the Higher Education Opportunities Program at the University of Rochester and an organizer of the Native Voices Symposia. Native Voices Symposia Native Voices will be held tomorrow through Saturday at the State University College at Brockport. Highlights include: Singer Joanne Shenandoah in concert, tomorrow, 8 p.m., Tower Fine Arts Theater; keynote speech by Jim Northrup, Friday, 8 p.m., Cooper Hall, New York Room. Student presentations, Friday, 9 a.m. to noon, 2 to 5 p.m.

and speakers from 9 a.m. to noon and 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, both days in Seymour Union, Room 220-221. A potluck supper and social dancing also will be held Saturday, 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., at the Rochester Museum Science Center, Eisenhart Auditorium.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, call 275-3157 or 395-5705. They will do this as a student group knowing that the next day they will hear and learn from experienced and renowned academics and professionals. It is a learning experience, and one that will help them decide what they want to do professionally. It also is an opportunity to meet potential mentors and learn about academic professionalism.

The students come from community colleges and from private and public institutions in the United States and Canada. Their research covers important topics such as alcoholism and its treatment on Indian reservations, respect and responsibility for professional photography of Native Americans, exploring legal issues affecting small reservations and bands, tribal sovereignty, Indian land rights, and suicide on Indian reservations. The students range from second-year students to doctoral candidates a true reflection of how far Native students have come in their quest for knowledge and for professionalism. They come from such institutions as San Francisco State University, Northern Arizona University, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, University at Buffalo, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Dartmouth College, and Lower Brule Community College in South Dakota. One student is presenting a film he wrote and directed, and which was shown to great acclaim at the recent Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

Not so many years ago, The future is our youth. Never has this adage been more true than when thinking about Native American college students. Statistically Native American college students never make the charts because their numbers are so low. Those who do graduate often find themselves facing many challenges and too few mentors to guide them through the morass. Where are these students and where are these mentors? Most likely the students are in the trenches working toward those degrees and finishing up those dissertations, and the professionals could be anywhere even in upstate New York! This information raises many questions for me.

What were these degrees in? How well did they do as students? What was their collegeuniversity experience like? I guess that speaks to the counselor part of me that nurturing but tough standards side of my professioa With these thoughts in mind, I want to refocus on the issue of Native American college students. Tomorrow through Saturday, the fifth annual Native Voices: Symposia on Contemporary Native American Issues will provide, among other things, an entire day of JOE IULA staff artist faculty interest, or strictly related to course material. But when the topic is related to Native issues, the fires of exploration are kindled and extraordinary writing emerges. However, the opportunity to publicly present these results is not always available. Native Voices gives these students a forum to present their work and to experience a lectern, an audience, and a question-and-answer session to defend and explain their work.

Come to the table to map out Rochester health care nity to delve into the annals in their fields, to read the primary sources that have dictated the perceptions and philosophy about their people, and to decide how well this interpretation has been done. For my field, history, this is a crucial point because history teaches us that to the victors go the spoils, including the right to write history. Academic freedom gives students the opportunity to explore, to see what's out there, to talk to their people, changed health system is improved with respect to the cost and quality of care, there is a need to reflect upon the fundamental aims of health care. Amid the distorting pressures of efficiency, financial losses and consolidation, it is increasingly difficult to stay focused on the humane purposes of health care and patient needs. More and more, talk of health care is about winning and losing provider contracts, cost-cutting and survival.

Sadly, with the business of health care in the forefront, there is less mention of innovations in care delivery and what is best for patients. To the extent that health if. La. make compelling arguments that we can no longer afford to disregard, or worse, undermine the possible gains that can be made with cooperation and community planning for health care. Through a broad-based community effort, coordinated and funded through the Rochester Health Commission, we can evaluate health care in Rochester and proactively plan for the future.

Working together we have a chance to strike a balance between the professional and the corporate, while creating and nuturing a sustainable health care delivery system. Getting started is a big step. It requires agreeing to Rochester's health care system, for both the short and the long term, we risk ending up at a destination we did not intend and mistaking the prevailing values as the right values for health care. A public and inclusive health care summit would be a very important opportunity to address patient issues on a communitywide level. The Genesee Valley Nurses Association supports the convening of such a summit and the voices of reason on the Speaking Out page calling for building bridges among health systems and thoughtful consideration of the impact that changes in health care are having on patients (essays, March 7).

Indeed, the essay authors to balance the past against the present, and the right to conduct culturally sensitive research and write up the results for academic scrutiny. It is this last aspect that is new for the students presenting at this year's Native Voices. Often research is conducted and written up; papers are turned in for grades, and usually that is the end of that piece of work. Sometimes the research is on a topic of great interest. Other times it is on a topic of care as a business is about service and improving patients' health, why are patients not central to our conversations? In subtle and explicit ways, attention is being diverted away from patients and toward the bottom line and tallies of market penetration.

At a recent meeting of the Genesee Valley Nurses Association, we discussed the substantive gains that could be made "if only" we applied our intellectual, financial, caring and emotional resources to the community's health concerns rather than to paper entre-preneurship. Without a meaningful community-level vision for pressed with their own importance, that it has forced us to look elsewhere for our news and weather reports. Good luck, Keith; we hope to see you soon on one of the other channels. BETTY COTTRILL IRONDEQUOIT There are reasons tolikeGov.Pataki I've never been a fan of the Republicans or of Gov. Pataki.

But in the past weeks he has done two things I appreciate. First, he visited Rochester after our blizzard. Second, he became an important from Most good I in Plaza, and In these filled good people don't can't charms value them student presentations on a myriad of topics. One of the symposia goals is to present, in an academic forum, research by Native American professionals and academics. This research is one way Native people are becoming responsible for their own heritage, cultures and interpretations.

Encouraging Native students to do their own research is the first step to developing this academic responsibility. This gives them the opportu adding value for consumers. Nurses see and experience every day the realities of budget cuts and the tensions created by health systems vying for physicians and patients. Competition and other characteristics of a market-driven system may prove beneficial in some areas of health care, but we are going forward without understanding the complex links among costs, quality and patient care. For example, how do nurse shortages affect patient well-being? Are we spending more or less of the health care dollar on patient care? Beyond the need for information to determine if a ihc Editor an all-out attack." Missiles that might be hit would explode and spew deadly radioactive material into our jointly shared atmosphere.

JULIE FAUSETTE HENRIETTA Fausctte is the Rochester chapter president of Women's Action for New Directions. Let's shine a liglit on drug dealers I am a co-owner of a business in Rochester and enjoy the few beautiful days we have. Unfortunately the drug dealers in the neighborhood do a higher volume on these days. I look out front and witness the sale of drugs going on, no police ever in sight. I have called over the years; the police make a short quick drive-by.

The dealers hide, then go right back to business. I have had my life threatened and pistols brandished at me. I will not let them drive us out. I think the police should walk beats in high-crime neighborhoods such as our part of Clinton Avenue, instead of waiting for a crime to happen. High visibility by the police would sure cut into their lucrative business.

Walking a beat would be great exercise, which everyone needs. Driving around sit at the table. Then, we must consider defining our "nonnegotiables" the aspects of health care delivery that we cannot lose without becoming untrue to the nature of health care. From there, the questions we ask and what we do will reflect our capacity to stay focused on the reasons there is health care in the first place. The Genesee Valley Nurses Association joins the Rochester Health Commission and others in accepting the Democrat and Chronicle's challenge to convene a health care summit.

Olsan, R.N., is presidentelect, Genesee Valley Nurses Association. must be true. This administration never lies. Throughout his campaign, we'll probably hear more about Mr. Gore's inventions.

Maybe he invented sexual exploitation. No, that was Bill Clintoa Maybe he should invent a device to make hell freeze over. That's when I'll vote for him. KATHY CHAPMAN CANANDAIGUA Movies growing far too costly I'm writing in response to an article about movie ticket prices (March 13, "$9.50 for a movie ticket? Get oudda I stopped going to the movies 10 years ago, when it cost me $15 to get "in the door" with a date. Once you've paid, you still have to hope the movie isn't a waste of time.

Movies are rated by "gross box office sales" now, so the more that is charged per ticket, the better it makes the movie look to future moviegoers. I'm surprised theaters survived the coming of video rentals. You can rent a movie for $3 and have 10 people watch it. At $9 per person, that would cost $90 at a theater. Of course, you could never duplicate the level of comfort of those spacious theater seats in the privacy of your own home, I guess.

RONALD A. SHORT PALMYRA Our young workers are high quality I wish to say a big thank you to the empoyees of Perkins. No matter which restaurant I went to, the service was always excellent. I will miss Perkins very much, especially the coffee pot they put on the table for each guest. Perkins employees, don't lose that quality, no matter where you work.

While I'm raving about young adults, I have to also give a big hug to the employees at Wegmans. They are always so helpful and courteous. Keep up the good work! THERESA ROBONIE HENRIETTA the bottom of my heart. LINDA WHITNEY ROCHESTER people are and honest would like to thank the person Wegmans at Country Club East Rochester, who found turned in two gold charms. days when the news is with horror stories, it is to be reminded that most are good and honest.

I know who you are, but I thank you enough. The have great sentimental and I'm thrilled to have back. Thank you. SHEILA DiPRIMA PERISTON Neighbors shoveled way into her heart My daughter was in the ICU and pediatric department at Strong Memorial Hospital during the snowstorm of '99. I would like to thank my neighbors for shoveling out my driveway and for shoveling this small street that we live on in order for me to be able to get to the hospital.

Their kindness touched me very much. I would also like to thank all the wonderful people who prayed for my daughter when she was ill, and to all the caring staff at Strong Memorial Hospital, especially Dr. Connelly, who worked tirelessly to save my daughter's life. Thank you GUEST ESSAYIST TOBiEH. 0LSAN Health care competition, for the sake of health care competition, has been disruptive for the Rochester and is likely using resources without Lcllcrs to Impulsiveness revives 'Star Wars' Democratic senators have joined Republicans in their zeal to reinstate "Star Wars" because North Korea and China now have the technology necessary to launch nuclear missiles that can hit U.S.

targets. But reports have stated that the systems our government has spent billions of dollars on are ineffective. And Russian leaders have stated they would respond to our renewal of "Star Wars" by not agreeing to nuclear weapons reductions. The response that should be forthcoming in the light of yet two more countries attaining nuclear launching capabilities is that all nations should be embracing an agreement to ban nuclear weapons. Our Senate leaders would not allow the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to be brought before the Senate.

But our Senate has hastily approved a bill that will waste billions more on a system that the Pentagon says will only be able to knock down a handful of ballistic missiles. The Pentagon has recently issued the statement that "such a shield would not protect the country against COMMUNITY FOCUS '99 Business Of Health Pals 011 Ihc Send your suggestion, in 100 words or less, to: Pats on the Back, 55 Exchange Rochester 14614 e-mail: dreditpagef DefflocratandChranide.coni Phone: 258-2401 and sitting in offices will not make a difference. STEPHEN R. KUITEMS WEBSTER A local station should hire Eichner We miss Keith Eichner! We hope another local TV station will pick him up. My husband and I appreciated his straightforward, no-nonsense weather reports.

No "mush-mouthed" renditions, no pathetic little jokes, just plain, everyday reporting. Too many people on Channel 10 seem so im Back department, I know we have people qualified to do the job within the ranks. Not only is this the right thing to do but think what it would do for morale if an outsider is hired. JOI IN E. GR1ERSON GREECE Gritrson is former chief of the North Greece Fire Department Gore's inventions don't impress her I was surprised to read that Al Gore invented the Internet.

I thought it was developed by the Defense Department in 1969 when Gore was a 21-year-old student. But, if Mr. Gore says so, it voice on the pro-choice side. You show 'em, Gov! PAT NENNI IRONDEOUOIT Hire Rochester fire chief locally After reading about the nationwide search to hire a city fire chief (March 20), I shake my head in disbelief at how we can continue to waste taxpayer money when we have qualified and deserving people locally. After being associated with the fire service for 30 years in the county and working very closely with the city.